Aug82013

Just over two weeks ago the Kuler team launched a new beta version of kuler.adobe.com with the top three user-requested features. That wasn’t enough for them so, since then, they’ve added two more:

Rearrange Colors in a Theme

Easily reorder colors in a theme by dragging color chips to the desired slot.

Color Sliders

Change color values with sliders that show the associated values of each color in a theme. Previously one slider controlled the brightness level of each color; now four sliders for each color take the guesswork out of changes… entire themes can be altered by moving sliders to any point along the color spectrum.

Jul222013

Since its relaunch in May, people have been using our Kuler web app to create and share color themes and use them in their work. They’ve also given us ideas about how we could make it better. So the Kuler team got busy and incorporated some of those requested changes.

The new beta version of kuler.adobe.com includes the top three requested features:

Extract color themes from an image

The original Kuler web app included the ability to extract a theme from an image. That feature is back. Just click the camera icon in the upper right corner of the Create page and choose a photo from your library.

A color wheel in two sizes

When we updated the interface many of our long-term users thought we’d made the color wheel too large. Now, with a click, the wheel can be larger when you need it and smaller when you don’t.

Reduced borders around individual colors in a theme

Now you can see more of each color and the play and interaction between them.

Jun172013

We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that our new family of Creative Cloud desktop apps, and many of the powerful publishing and collaborative features that we announced at Adobe MAX in May, are now available. These include:

Hundreds of new features in new versions of the apps you love, including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Adobe Muse CC, Dreamweaver CC, Edge Animate CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, and more. Your Creative Cloud membership includes more than 30 tools and services that enable professional-grade content creation and delivery across print, web, mobile apps, video and photography.

The new Creative Cloud app for your desktop, which keeps your entire creative world in sync and organized. Download and manage the latest product updates, keep tabs on your work and your followers on Behance, and more – all right from your desktop.

The ability to sync your application settings to Creative Cloud. Whether you use a Mac or PC —or both! — you can synchronize your workspace settings — including things like preferences, presets, brushes, and libraries. No more tedious fussing with your apps on a new computer. Just log in, sync, and get back to work.

Integration with Behance, the world’s leading creative community. Members are able to publish their portfolios, follow others, publish work-in-progress from within a growing number of CC apps, and solicit feedback from a worldwide community of over 1.4 million creatives. And now, stay connected with the world’s best creative work with the Behance mobile app for iOS.

A Behance Prosite for Creative Cloud member. Create a personalized, professional looking, dynamic web site in minutes to show off your work and build your brand.

The new Adobe Kuler iPhone app, so you can share your color themes and explore thousands of others available on the Kuler website. Sync your favorite themes, and they’ll be accessible immediately in Illustrator CC. We’ll be rolling out support for synced color themes in other CC apps later this year.

Over 200 new tutorials added to Creative Cloud Learn to help customers get up and running quickly. And the all new Creative Voices videos that give you a glimpse into the lives of some of the most creative minds in the world.

If you are a Creative Cloud member, all of these new apps and services are available to you today, available on a completely redesigned app center on the Creative Cloud website. For enterprise and education customers, we expect to make everything available on June 21 and government customers will see the updates in July. To learn more about Creative Cloud for enterprise, go here.

So, what’s next?

One of the advantages of being a Creative Cloud member is that you get updates and new features continuously. We already have the next batch lined up and you will be seeing the following new features and functionality as soon as they are ready:

File syncing on the desktop, including file versioning and private folder sharing. Customers may continue to upload and share files via the browser, with desktop functionality and more features coming soon. Private folders will let you share just the files you want in the cloud, and with versioning, every layer will be maintained and past versions will be saved. Comments on versions and invitations to join shared folders will appear in your activity stream in the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Typekit fonts on your desktop. Quickly find the perfect fonts in the growing Adobe Typekit library, sync them to your computer, and have them immediately available for use in any desktop application. Full Creative Cloud members will soon have access to over 700 fonts, installed with a single click.

An exciting new technology in Photoshop which we demonstrated at our MAX conference, that automatically sizes, crops, and creates image assets for the web from a document’s layers. This makes it significantly easier to go from static visual design to responsive layouts using HTML5 and CSS.

A Creative Cloud app for iOS to keep your entire creative world in sync and organized – on the go.

We can’t wait to see what you do with these new apps and services. If you have any questions or comments, please post them in our forums, where we are continuing the conversation. And if you’re not yet a Creative Cloud member, it’s easier than ever to get started with a complete plan, or 30-day free trials of all the new CC apps.

May302013

Earlier this month we showed you a preview of Kuler for the iPhone, the new Kuler website and how you can access your Kuler themes in Illustrator CC. Today, we’re launching the new site and making Kuler available on the App Store.

For those of you who missed Kuler in the MAX keynote, Kuler allows you to create inspiring color themes and explore hundreds of thousands of color themes created by other users. The Kuler iPhone app lets you capture color themes anywhere, using the iPhone camera. All the themes you create with Kuler, on the web or with your iPhone, can be accessed with other Adobe applications such as Illustrator and Ideas.

The full benefits of Kuler are available to Creative Cloud members. The Sync Colors feature lets you use Kuler and Illustrator to quickly incorporate colors you see around you into your vector artwork. Sync your favorite themes with the Kuler website, and they’ll be accessible immediately inside Illustrator CC – only available in Creative Cloud.

If you are an active Kuler user, you may notice a few pages and features missing from the new Kuler website. I’m writing to explain what’s missing, why it’s missing, and what you can expect to see in the coming weeks and months. Here’s an overview of what you won’t find on the new site:

Create a theme from an image: We know many users really like the “Create from an Image” feature. Unfortunately, this feature was not ready for the new site launch. So, rather than launching a buggy or half-baked feature, we decided to take a bit more time to get it right.

We intend to add this feature to the site as soon as it’s ready. Until then, you can use the free iPhone app to create themes from images.

Color space “slider” controls: We talked to a lot of Kuler users about the slider controls. Some users like them and others don’t. The main complaint we heard was that the sliders add unnecessary complexity and take up too much space.

So, we opted to not add the sliders and err on the side of making the creation experience simple. Though, we decided to keep the “brightness” slider control since some colors spaces don’t have a brightness variable. We’d love to know what you think. You can voice your opinion on the Kuler forum.

Change the order of colors: In our research, we found most users did not know you could re-order colors on the old Kuler site. And, it’s actually quite a bit of work to build this feature. So, rather than re-building a feature many users don’t know about or use, we wanted to hear from you first. Please visit the Kuler forum and let us know what you think.

Avatar: Most of the users we talked with about Kuler avatars were indifferent. In fact, they asked us to focus on other features first. So, that’s what we’re doing–we’re focusing on some of the most requested features first.

Community spotlight and Pulse: The Community Spotlight and Pulse were beta features that never really gained any traction. So, we opted to not continue with these features.

API: We’re working to rebuild the Kuler API to offer more robust capabilities. Until then, we’re no longer issuing new API keys. If you already have a key and are using the API, your service will not be interrupted (your key will continue to work).
We’re always looking for feedback and would love to hear what you think about any of these topics—please join the discussion on the Kuler forum.